“What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly, arching her back.
“Touching you. Feeling you in the only way I can,” I rasped.
It was a poor substitute for touch. A long time ago, back before the curse, I could’ve easily tasted her through water even across this entire ocean. Now, all I got was a vague sense of her body heat. But even that was better than nothing.
“I want to touch you, Maren. I want to taste your skin. I want to bury my nose in your neck and breathe you in. But all I can do is this. Please, let me, sweetheart. You’re not betraying anyone by it.”
She glanced at the ring on her finger as if just remembering it now. I was certain she’d never see her fiancé again. He was forever lost to her now, as good as dead. But that relationship still meant something to her. She was still wearing the ring that must’ve come from him. She hadn’t taken it off.
I didn’t want the thoughts of him to stop her from being with me in every way I could have her.
“This is the closest I can get to an embrace,” I said. “Please don’t run. Please let me touch you, even if just like this.”
The last thing I wanted was her pity. Yet here I was, begging her for an imitation of a hug.
She stilled, gently treading water while holding on to the edge of the reef. She said nothing, but she didn’t get out of the water either. She stayed where I wanted her to be.
I sent a tentative stream up her leg. It curled like a curious little serpent around her knee, then slipped higher up her thigh. Her breathing sped up, but I didn’t push my luck, sending the water around her waist instead of between her legs as I really wanted to.
She exhaled, either with relief or disappointment, I couldn’t tell. So I tested the waters by cupping her left breast from below.She drew in a breath with a gasp but didn’t move. Apparently, my willful, fiery butterfly could be obedient when it pleased her.
And pleasing her was all I wished to do. I brushed her hardened nipple, rolling a ripple of water over it. Maren’s lips parted with the softest moan, thrilling me with her response.
I couldn’t give her much, hardly anything at all. But everything I gave, she responded to perfectly.
Impatient and in desperate need for more, I send the water rolling down her body. And, oh gods, she opened her legs for me.
Fuuuck.
My mind reeled. I could barely stand it. My cock threatened to explode into ribbons any minute now, and I wouldn’t even regret the loss of it if it did. I wanted her more than I’d ever wanted anything or anyone in my life. I had no idea how, but I had to have her.
Maren jerked, blinking as if waking up from a trance.
“This is so...” she started, her brow furrowing with a frown. “So...”
“What? Beautiful? Sexy? Fucking amazing?” I tried to help her finish the sentence.
“No.” She glared at me. “It’s wrong. It’s messed up, Kye. It’s so screwed up in many ways and many times over.”
Chapter 9
Maren
The dinner went mostly in silence that night.
Kye looked lost in thoughts. Judging by how promptly he finished his dinner then went to inspect all the pools on the main level of the palace, he was still concerned about the monsters in the water.
Oddly enough, I worried less about them, even though I’d been the one attacked. They hadn’t shown for two nights now. If they came up to the surface less frequently than once a century, I wouldn’t be here anyway when they appeared again. I wouldn’t even be alive.
Sitting at the dining table, I watched Kye through the few glass walls that separated us. The image was distorted by the several corners, bends, and surfaces, but I could still see where he was and what he was doing.
He kneeled by one of the pools to peer into the dark water below. Instead of getting up to walk around it to the other side, he then slipped into the water and swam across it.
I smiled to myself. His strokes weren’t perfect yet. But where he lacked in technique, he made up for in strength. His muscular arms and powerful kicks propelled his large body across the water in record time.
Pride glowed in my chest when I remembered how much progress he’d made in just three days. The day before yesterday,he was afraid to let go of the coral branch. And now, he could already swim across a pool of water.
Of course, swimming wasn’t an entirely new skill for him. As a siren, he was born with it. He just had to relearn it now, but most importantly, he needed to believe that he could.
